Apocalypse Theory Of The Abandoned World

Night Walk

Doyun had regretted many things in his 29 years of life. He regretted staying quiet when other kids bullied him. He regretted never volunteering when the teacher asked for it. He regretted never stopping his father when he beat his mother. He regretted letting his mother die alone, on the cold floor of their apartment. 

  The point was that the person known as Cha Doyun had many regrets. But there were also things that he will never regret. He would feel miserable and guilty for sure, though he would never regret them.

  Cha Doyun will never regret his father's death who drank himself to death. He will never regret standing up for his schoolmates back then. And just like how he'll never regret protecting them, he will never regret leaving the kids behind.

 It wasn't like he left them forever. Just that he needed time to breathe for a while. So he decided to take a walk outside, leaving his kids in the capable hands of Lee Iseul.

   An hour or so had passed since then and Doyun was starting to regret his decision.

  He hadn't meant to stray this far from the apartment complex but before he knew it, Doyun was already in an unfamiliar area of Seoul, lost with no way back.

  The dark haired man groaned in frustration. How was he meant to get back now? He didn't even know where he had ended up and he couldn't see his surroundings well due to the dark. 

 Doyun cursed his absent mindedness, pulling out his phone flashlight to light his way through whatever street he had ended up in. He then turned around and started walking back the way he came from.

 He tried to ignore the way plants slithered across the road and over the building walls. He also ignored the way various strange creatures surfaced from the corners around the street. He just kept walking. It wasn't like he wanted to acknowledge their existence anyway.

 Like that, Doyun continued to walk without taking his eyes off of the road in front of him. He actually had no idea how far he had walked but he did know he was heading in the right direction. The [Thread Of Tracking] he had tied to the kids were quite useful for finding his way back to them.

  In the distance, there was a sound of growling that sent shivers through his back. The green eyed man tried to ignore the sound too and continued walking. From what he could see in the moonlight, he was rather close to the apartment building.

  But before he could reach the building, Doyun stopped. He turned off his flashlight and quickly pulled out his knife.

 The growling sound from earlier had gotten closer to his general area and he did not fancy running into whatever monster that was making this noise. 

 His heart hammered away in his chest as the growling sound got even closer, followed by heavy footsteps of something big. With every step the creature took, the ground under him trembled ever so slightly.

  Doyun took a deep breath, and squinted into the direction of the sound. He didn't have to squint for long however as a truly enormous looking tiger came into his field of vision. The tiger's features weren't all that visible in the dark except for the large golden eyes that had settled on him.

 His eyes widened and he jumped out of the way as a large paw swiped into where he had been standing, breaking off part of the concrete ground into the building wall. 

  Doyun could vaguely remember that most cats had night vision. A tiger was a cat, albeit a huge, deadly one. The one be was facing even more so, of that category.

 He coughed, waving his hand to disperse the dust cloud the swipe left behind. But before he could focus his vision once more, the next attack was already coming. The monster swiped at Doyun again, giving him no time to react.

  He crashed into the car by the side of the road with great force. His body burned in the pain that shot through his entire body and he let out a loud strangled cry.

  Doyun sled off of the car and collapsed into the ground just as the car went flying across the street. The tiger approached him, making that growly sound again, which Doyun realized was some butched version of a purr.

  It was playing with him, he noted from that cursed self satisfied sound.

 The dark haired man tried to move his body, to stand up and run. He couldn't die here when he still had kids to take care of. They were waiting for him to back, so he had to get up 

 But no matter what he tried, his pain riddled body could not move. Just as he despaired over his helplessness and impending death, the tiger closed in on him. 

 

 It opened it's massive maws and quickly jumped into it's new meal. Yet as soon as it tried to close its mouth, it found that it couldn't move.

   

  There on the ground, Doyun laid, grinning like a madman. Inside his hand, sat a scarlet red string flailing to get free. The tired man had no idea what this red string was but he did notice how every living thing they came across had it and how grabbing it made Iseul unable to move.

  Holding into the string thightly, Doyun slowly pushed himself off of the ground, wincing at every shot of pain that stung through his entire body.  He slowly moved towards where his knife had fallen, taking one step at a time.

 Carefully, he reached down and picked it up before making his way to the still frozen tiger.

 He stared into the fearful golden eyes of the animal impassively. The same creature that had tried to kill him, now at his mercy. 

 

The emerald eyed man would have chuckled at the situation had he not been in so much pain. Instead he raised the knife high and stabbed into the same golden eyes. The tiger could not even struggle or make a sound as it was stabbed over and over again by the merciless hand of Doyun.

  With one last look at the now dead beast, Doyun let go of the burning red string. Immediately, he got bombarded with notifications after notifications, his mind could not comprehend fully enough. Until one particular message popped up.

 

           [REWARDS FOR HUNTING]

              [THE MUTATED TIGER.]

[1.Instant Healing [USE]

2.Venomous Spike Dagger x1

3. Mutated Tiger eye jewel x1 (Buff Item) ]

 He quickly tapped the [USE] button, unwilling to collapse beside the giant tiger corpse. In an instant the healing took place and all the injuries faded off, leaving behind just a speck of pain lingering.

  Feeling a little more awake now that the pain wasn't distracting him anymore, Doyun read the other notifications, pleasantly surprised.

 Maybe, honestly, I was a little baffled.

  (1)  [CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE

 SUCCESSFULLY HUNTED THE MUTATED

                              TIGER.]

  (2) [ 2000 coins have been dropped into your account.]

  (3)  [YOU HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW EFFECT OF YOUR ABILITY]

   /

[String of Life: I rank]

[You can now locate and utilize the string of life of any living being to render them immobile as long as you hold it. However you must be extremely close to the subject to materialize the string and if you get out of 200mt distance the string will automatically return to the owner.]

 [ You can not cut the string of life. ]

Doyun closed the windows with a contemplative look on his face. This ability was certainly a useful one and maybe a little too overpowered for someone like him. Sighing, the man closed his eyes briefly.

 'Anything to protect the kids is good.' He reminded himself.

 Then without another word, he turned away from the tiger corpse. He headed towards the apartment complex as quickly as possible, unable and unwilling to risk anymore dwindling around.

  After a 30 or so minute, Doyun was back in front of the building. He took a deep breath and pulled the door open, entering the apartment room.

   In front of him by the stool waited Iseul who gave him an annoyed sigh and turned towards him with an aggravated look, only to pause. She stood there for a few minutes, openly gaping at the fidgeting 29 years old before finally regaining her wits enough to yell.

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU!?"

  Doyun winced as the door of the bedroom thumped open to reveal frantic Sung-Jin which was soon followed by a loud crying of Ah-In from inside the room.

  The older man sighed. It was gonna be another sleepless night, it seemed.